Writer Koratala Siva who started his career as dialogue and story writer for Bhadra is making his directorial debut with Mirchi which is releasing on 8 February 2013. Siva speaks about the necessity of having high emotional content for any film to work at universal level. Here is an interview -

Background
I was interested in writing since childhood. It was mostly a soft writing till I read Sri Sri’s Maha Prasthanam. Maha Prasthanam has shown me how to invoke revolutionary feelings with strong words. I am a relative of Posani Krishna Murali. I have joined him as an assistant after completing my B Tech. My first film as a writer was Bhadra. I have worked for several other films in the capacity of story writer and dialogue writer.

Producers Vamsi and Pramod are my friends for a long time. When they started a banner, I expected them to go to top hotshot director. But they asked me if I have a good story for Prabhas. I was surprised because they didn’t go after famed director, but wanted a good script instead. I have a story for a big-canvassed film. I had developed it by keeping Prabhas in mind and narrated it to him. Prabhas was surprised that there were no punch dialogues and dialogue orientation when I narrated script. He expected me to come up with some punch and powerful dialogues to impress him as I am basically a writer. I took as compliment as I could impress Prabhas as a director.

Prabhas’s character design
Prabhas has a distinct feature which is unique to him among the film heroes. Girls want to see him as lover boy, masses want him to do action hero role, he is a youth icon for young generation. Some people want him to do comedy. Hence, it is upto the director to utilize so many versatile angles in him while preparing a script. I have prepared the script in such a way that it can be categorized as a mass and family entertainer.

Writing and directing
I feel that writing helps direction. If you are on sets of other directors and observe, you will get a fair idea about how to direct a film. But the process of storytelling should be learnt as a writer. I learnt the process of storytelling while writing for films. I have never worked in direction department earlier. My only experience in direction was to observe various directors on locations.

There is more scope for imagination. Hence writer writes it beautifully. But there are several constraints from direction and production point view to get what writer wrote perfectly onto the screen. What works for me as an audience is the high emotional content. I made sure that the emotional content is high in Mirchi.

My favorite directors are Raj Kumar Santoshi, Mani Ratnam and K Viswanath. I love the way they get emotions right. They bring lot of emotions into the conflict point of the movie.

Prabhas
Prabhas is a delight to work with. He has no ego issues. Once he trusts the story and okays the script, he leaves everything to the vision of director. He has done a lot of hard work and preparation for Mirchi. He has changed his physique and body language for this movie. He enjoys the entire process of filmmaking. He is very passionate about his work.

Lavish locations
We have shot Mirchi in Italy for 20 days because script demanded it. We have shot a considerable portion of the movie in Tenkasi for 25 days. We have shot the movie in Lavasa near Pune too. The movie is going to be a treat to eyes.

A certificate
The censor board has suggested 2/3 cuts in order to get U/A certificate. But we felt that those scenes are essential and decided not to tinker with those scenes. Thus , we accepted A certificate.

Highlights of Mirchi
Story and Prabhas are the highlights of the movie.

Next project
I am working on a script and it has a huge canvas to it. We will announce more details soon.